Sometime back

PAC top brass to blame for stalled talks
06-07-2008 13:32 door Richard Chirombo637 times viewedContinue reading
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- Public Affairs Committee [PAC] top hierarchy has been accused of playing a role in the failed mediation talks between president Bingu wa Mutharika and the opposition. PAC initiated the talks to help solve the political impasse between Mutharika and UDF national Chairman Bakili Muluzi on one hand, and the opposition Malawi Congress Party which initially denied having any problem with government. Bruno Banda, Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace [CCJP] Senior Field Officer, in an interview in Blantyre attributed little progress by the parties involved in the talks to monopoly by PAC’s high ranking officials. He said: “ Civil society Organisations in the coun…
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ACB warns govt. officials
06-07-2008 13:30 door Richard Chirombo608 times viewedContinue reading
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- Anti-Corruption Bureau [ACB] Director Gustave Kaliwo has cautioned those in public positions now against crying foul when the graft-bursting body institutes investigations into their alleged corrupt practices, as that makes them prone to commit “crimes of opportunity”. Kaliwo said that is why some of the bureau’s investigations have involved United Democratic Front [UDF] officials who served under the Bakili Muluzi administration, since their public positions meant they had privileges in form of access to public funds. He was reacting to claims by the party’s officials accusing the ACB of political witch-hunting by continually targeting its membership in…
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Govt. dismisses donor interference claims in World Bank proj
06-07-2008 13:29 door Richard Chirombo671 times viewedContinue reading
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- Government has dismissed fears it may be forced to sacrifice Malawi’s interests in a bid to please development partners during the implementation phase of the World Bank- sponsored Rural Infrastructure Development Project. The project, designed to stimulate economic growth and the public service delivery system through increased access and reliability of the country’s infrastructure, is expected to start in September, late this year. The sentiments come in the wake of allegations that governments favour firms from the countries and regions of development partners financing such projects, an accusation it quashes off. Government came especially under a spate of criti…
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Procurement fraud blamed on ‘illegal’ officers
06-07-2008 13:27 door Richard Chirombo646 times viewedContinue reading
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- The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply [CIPS], the highest grouping of the country’s procurement and supply chain officers, has blamed cases of alleged fraud and corruption involving procurement managers on unqualified personnel. CIPS’ President, Edward Jeke, in an interview in Blantyre, attributed such cases to organisations that engage the services of unqualified officers, people he said lacked the high ethical standards demanded by the profession. Jeke said such individuals had little regard for the trade making them susceptible to unethical practices, a move he claimed only soils the very image of qualified procurement and supply chain officers. “W…
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Banda dismisses talk of “rotten” treadle pumps
06-07-2008 13:26 door Richard Chirombo608 times viewedContinue reading
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- By Richard Chirombo Blantyre City South constituents have accused MP Jimmy Banda of delaying the distribution of treadle pumps President Bingu wa Mutharika allocated to all constituencies represented in the National Assembly, accusing him of letting the pumps “rot” in his warehouse. But Banda has dismissed the claims, describing them as machinations of opposition politicians who don’t wish him well. Manuel Mtambalika, one of the constituents who claim to have two acres of land in Chilobwe township but doesn’t harvest enough because of unreliable rains, said in an interview he had waited for the pumps for over seven months but was yet to receive them.…
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‘Hunger forced the children out’
06-07-2008 13:25 door Richard Chirombo669 times viewedContinue reading
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- The case where five children ran away from their Ndirande home should serve as a living example of the many problems child-headed households face, and compel Malawians to formulate conducive policies to ease their suffering, says one of the many youths who heads an all-children household. Everson Fositala, brother to the children who handed themselves over to Blantyre Police after failing to connect to their Ntcheu home district, said Tuesday in an interview in Blantyre he could not blame his little brothers and sisters for their action since the situation they were living in was simply not conducive to normal livelihood. “It is hunger that forced the children out. Most o…
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Employment Act to improve workers' conditions
06-07-2008 13:23 door Richard Chirombo561 times viewedContinue reading
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- The country’s workforce should expect improved conditions of service once government finishes reviewing provisions of the Employment Act, Southern Region Labour Officer Odridge Khunga has hinted. The development will also benefit the much neglected estate workers, one of the country’s lowest paid sectors, according to Khunga. Khunga disclosed this in Thyolo Saturday when the Institute for Policy Interaction [IPI] briefed estate managers on a new Employment Record Book introduced to help workers in plantations keep track of their work attendance and benefits. The Regional Labour Officer said it was in this regard that government had re-introduced the surveilla…
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Construction industry shuns external projects
06-07-2008 13:19 door Richard Chirombo996 times viewedContinue reading
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- Malawian construction firms shun away from projects outside the country, effectively rendering the country uncompetitive on the global scale. This has contributed to the ‘below average’ revenue the country receives through exports of services says the Institution of Engineers in Malawi. Institution President, Paul Kulemeka in Blantyre this week, said the situation was made worse, “sometimes”, when government chose to substitute local engineering consultants in projects involving foreign firms. “There is need for specific orientation of attachees at Malawi embassies, through a consultant, so that they are able to obtain relevant information on…
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Malawi's independence: some things never to forget
06-07-2008 13:17 door Richard Chirombo711 times viewedContinue reading
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- Today, Malawians celebrate Independence Day. Richard Chirombo looks back. What we call Malawi now first lived in the minds and hearts of the bold few who liberated it, well before it formally existed on the world political map as a sovereign state. They saw, in their minds, those great symbols of a nation state – flag, emblem, national anthem, head of state and government, passport, and currency– that their invented community could call its own. They got them at the cost of their own lives, because they wanted total happiness for all. That was done, long after some had already gone Yet after that was done, still there was no true happiness for all. Without true happ…
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Malawian women politicians disappoint gender activists
06-07-2008 12:54 door Richard Chirombo658 times viewedContinue reading
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- In her years as gender activist and Board Chairperson for the NGO Gender Network, Emma Kaliya has seen women politicians –still clad in their skirts and Zitenje; and still wearing the tag of proud, committed wives to their husbands- turn into men. “Most of the women we have interacted with in the past, and helped to mould into formidable politicians we see today started as ‘real’ women. They were humble and promised to look into the welfare of fellow women once propelled into power; that they would help pass legislation advancing the course of women,” says Kaliya. ”But once there, they forget all this and become men”. By this, she adds, she means…
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Menopause:Malawian women suffer in silence
06-07-2008 12:48 door Richard Chirombo852 times viewedContinue reading
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- If Anastasia Phiri had her way, she would have thrown the memories of one January night two years ago behind the folder of her mind and stop being the guilty-ridden woman she is today. It came barely two months after clocking 57- though there was nothing unusual about the day most Malawians would die dreaming to reach as for most, and keeping by the United Nations Development Programme projections on life expectancy, the clock stops at 39 years. “ That is before my husband died in May last year (2007). I woke up around mid-night, went straight to the kitchen where, for no specific reason, I took hold of the handle of an old hoe. Then the unexpected happened as I took it to the bedr…
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'Bingu obstackle to political amnesty'
03-07-2008 16:03 door Richard Chirombo640 times viewedContinue reading
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- Observers have accused president Bingu wa Mutharika of being the major hindrance to current mediation efforts aimed resolving the on going impasse between government and the country's opposition. The two sides have been rocked in a dead-rock that threatens to undo social-economic gains attained over the past four years. The issue is a dead-end on what should come first- section 65 of the Republican Constitution, or the national budget? It is a puzzle that both government and the opposition have failed to solve over the past four years, since Mutharika dumped the United Democratic Front (UDF) on February 05, 2005 to form his own Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The embittered UDF…
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TNM unveils bold plans
02-07-2008 16:04 door Richard Chirombo599 times viewedContinue reading
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- Malawi's leading mobile service provider,TNM, has unveiled bold plans aimed at taking the country closer to the Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT) highway. The pioneer mobile service provider has embarked on a programme aimed at bringing communication at the door step of consumers through a massive network extension initiative, according to TNM Products Manager Daniel Makata. Makata said in Blantyre it was in the company's etho to make communication easy for most people, a fit often humpered by the meagre number of citizens who have access to tele-communication services. Less than 30 per cent of the population has access to a telephone, according to National Stati…
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Thither founding Malawi musicians?
20-06-2008 15:23 door Richard Chirombo745 times viewedContinue reading
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- They are united by two facts, Malawi's old music guards: Nationality and death. Of couse, they are Malawian. But, they also die poor. It is this poverty that pains one of the country's old music guards, Lommie Mafunga. He has sung at various fora. What tune hasn't he sang? He even won a competition of Malawi's acoustic musicians organised in 1988 by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). That is when music meant music- not these days when all it means are dis-jointed choral codes and too much noise. The instruments stopped to coordinate, now people sing for money: nolonger for joy, nolonger to entertain, nolonger an art. Just that, to make noise. And noise is po…
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Against all odds, Bingu still ticks
20-06-2008 14:40 door Richard Chirombo660 times viewedContinue reading
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- Malawi's political commentators and analysts agree that President Bingu wa Mutharika's reign might have not been one of the easiest, looking at the continued overtures of an opposition out to frustrate his economic endeavours and constant threats to reject his fiscal blue prints since 2004. But they all also unanimously agree that Mutharika is a strong character, who has managed to overcome his numerous political frustrations, and that under him, Malawi has registered a myriad of development strides unrivaled by former president Bakili Muluzi's regime. "That is what is needed of a leader; he should be accommodative, yes, but strong enough to stand firm on issues of na…
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Mhen urges media to specialise in health
10-06-2008 15:36 door Richard Chirombo645 times viewedContinue reading
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- The Malawi Health Equity Network (Mhen), a grouping of Malawian health-rights organisations, has asked government to make health services equitable for all if sustainable social-economic development is to be attained in line with Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) time frame. Malawi faces a myriad of health challenges, including poor remuneration for public health sector personnel, inadequate human resourse, as well as collapsing infrastructure. This is made worse by the prblem of brain-drain, where personnel leave the country in search of greener pastures, especially in the United Kingdom and USA. Ministry of Health officials, including Health Minister Khumbo Kachali, have often compla…
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Upper-Shire Anglican Diocese remembers HIV-positive people
29-05-2008 16:43 door Richard Chirombo818 times viewedContinue reading
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- The Anglican UpperShire Diocese says the problem of HIV and Aids has devastated households in South-Eastern Malawi that religious institutions were overwhelmed with orphans and vulnerable children looking for help, a development it attributes to stigma and descrimination rampant in Malawi. As a result, there has been an increased spate of families' and communities disintegration, as the HIV-positive continue to suffer incidences of discrimination. Malawi is one of the sub-Saharan countries whose societal-thread is very much strengthened by an extended family system, but the diocese has warned that that was now increasingly becoming rare as families focus on themselves for survival. …
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Mid-month fair irk exhibitors
21-05-2008 16:06 door Richard Chirombo886 times viewedContinue reading
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Participants to the on-going Malawi International Trade Fair have expressed disappointment with the timing of this year's fair, saying its mid-month fixing has put them in a fray over sales. - Esther Phiri, of Mbaweme Women in Business Association, said the group has made little turn-over during the first six days of the fair as compared to last year. "I think the timing is poor; it has cost us a lot of money to get organised and come here (all the way from Northern Malawi, some 600 Km), yey people are not forth-coming because it is mid-month. The Malawi Confederation of Commerce and Industry (organisers of the fair) would have done better," said Phiri at his pavilion on Tues…
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Malawian MPs ignorant of ATT
19-05-2008 10:25 door Richard Chirombo1725 times viewedContinue reading
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Most Malawian Members of Parliament (MP) are unaware about the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), two years after 153 member states of the United Nations voted in its favour for sustainable world peace in 2006. . - UN member states agreed during that year, at the UN General Assembly, on the need to have a plausible world treaty regulating the sale of small arms and light weapons. It was hoped that this would help control the proliferation of arms into 'blood' hands -people who would end up using them for human rights violations, especially in war-torn countries. According to research carried out by a local NGO, People's Federation for National Peace and Development (Pefenap)-one of t…
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Bingu condemned
13-05-2008 16:49 door Richard Chirombo952 times viewedContinue reading
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Civil Society organisations have accused president Bingu wa Mutharika of turning Malawi into a police state. - Their sentiments follows the alleged arrest of former Inspector General of Police, Joseph Iron, and Former Army Commander Joseph Chimbayo. Mutharika revealed on Friday that he had uncovered a plot by the opposition to usurp power from him using a controversial legislation, which empowers the speaker to declare vacant seats of MPs deemed to have crossed the floor by deserting parties that sponsored them into power. Malawi Human Rights Watch Executive Director, Billie Banda, said the arrests were ill-timed and could only work to threaten the electoral process in 2009, the year M…
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Youths fundraise for community PCs
08-05-2008 12:03 door Richard Chirombo912 times viewedContinue reading
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Concerned Youth Organisation (CYO) and Women for Fair Development (Wofad) have embarked on initives aimed at bringing Information and Communication Technology to Malawi's rural areas, a step they say will help towards complementing government efforts in bringing the country to the information highway. . - Malawi is one of the sub-Saharan African countries with the lowest ICT knowledge, a development government has often cited as being behind the country's back-waters' tag, as it remains relatively unknown to the outside world. Information and Civic Education Minister, Patricia Kaliati, who is also government spokesperson, said today in an interview apart from the hype brough…
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Human rights activists blame govt. on impasse
08-05-2008 11:25 door Richard Chirombo694 times viewedContinue reading
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Malawian Human Rights activists have blamed President Bingu wa Mutharika for the escalating political impasse in the country, adding the president has even complicated matters by allowing Members of Parliament on the government side to pass important national bills in the absence of boycotting opposition MPs. - The country's parliament has for the first time since independence gone without a quoram during the opening of the August house, partly because of government's reluctance to sit down with opposition parties, who also hold a majority in the house, on the issue of the controversial section 65. The section empowers the speaker to declare vacant any sit of an MP who has moved aw…
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Women turning into men in Malawi
02-05-2008 11:35 door Richard Chirombo2004 times viewedContinue reading
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Some women are turning into men in Malawi - Puna Mwamadi, 36, believes she died on April 6, 1997. The mother of Four, from the area of Traditional (T/A) Authority Karonga in the Lakeshore district of Salima, Southern Malawi, had been eight-months pregnant when her husband, Abner, died in March of the same year- leaving behind her and two other co-wives as theirs was a polygamous family. "I was at home on that night (of April 6, 1997) when labour pains begun. There was only myself at home, alongside Mirriam and Patuma, my deceased husband's other wives, and these people did alot to help me:I remember Patuma run into the bush without being afraid of the appalling darkness that nigh…
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Polygamy's future hangs in balance
02-05-2008 11:31 door Richard Chirombo765 times viewedContinue reading
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Polygamy may one day be forgotten in Malawi. If laws were always to be obeyed. - Puna Mwamadi, 36, believes she died on April 6, 1997. The mother of Four, from the area of Traditional (T/A) Authority Karonga in the Lakeshore district of Salima, Southern Malawi, had been eight-months pregnant when her husband, Abner, died in March of the same year- leaving behind her and two other co-wives as theirs was a polygamous family. "I was at home on that night (of April 6, 1997) when labour pains begun. There was only myself at home, alongside Mirriam and Patuma, my deceased husband's other wives, and these people did alot to help me:I remember Patuma run into the bush without being afrai…
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MCTU to decide on severance pay
02-05-2008 11:26 door Richard Chirombo699 times viewedContinue reading
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The Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU) says it will come up with its long-awaited for stand on the outstanding issues of pension and severance pay today, following exhaustive consultations with affiliate members that started in Blantyre yesterday. - News Travel MCTU Secretary General, Austin Mkwezalamba said in an interview the mother trade union recently received funding from the International Labour Organisation (ILO)to tackle the issue once and for all, and that labour unions were now ready to come up with a final stand on the issue he said has brought untold misery and suffering among Malawian workers. "We are now ready to come up with a final decision, and what s…
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